


Rebel Heart

by tsuyume



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Iruka Appreciation Week, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-12
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-25 23:38:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4981207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsuyume/pseuds/tsuyume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Umino Iruka is a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But it's in the margins that he recognizes himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Origins

One of the things Iruka regrets the most is never asking when he still had the chance. Now, all he holds in his hands are fragments of the people his parents used to be.

The memory of how warm his mother’s hands always were when they gently guided his during kunai practice. How cold, when she gently removed his hands from holding her up after she had been fatally wounded by the attack of the Kyuubi, so that he could be taken away into safety.

What is left; a set of her kunai, set aside for practice, since she took all her best weapons with her in her last fight.

The strong grip of his father’s hands when he had pulled Iruka’s hair back into the customary ponytail of the Umino clan. The subtle shaking of the very same hands when they had held him back from joining the fight against the Kyuubi, pushing him into his rescuer’s arms.

What is left; a hair tie, too loose to hold up Iruka’s hair anymore, a treasured keepsake on the top of his dresser.

The wistfulness in his mother’s gaze when he had asked about her origins in a small village far away from Konohagakure. She had told him of his grandmother and the women who had ruled the clan. Of their fighting style, their traditions and language. Iruka wishes now he could at least remember a name.

All that is left: A beautiful traditional dress; which Iruka keeps in a chest, but has never worn. He doesn’t know how.

The trepidation in his father’s voice when he had wiped away the blood and tears from Iruka’s face. _It was necessary, or so your mother said,_ his father had told him, _It’s a tradition of her people, I had to respect it; so that you’ll never forget where your roots are, even if you bear my name and face._ Iruka had nodded uncertainly, the pain already numbed by the anaesthetic.

All that is left now: The precisely cut scar on Iruka’s face. People identify him by that scar, even more so than by his ponytail or facial features. Iruka wonders if his mother would be happy, if she would be proud. He doesn’t know how to feel about it.

Scars; like memories, they remain in those who continue living. The mark of those who endure: Shinobi.


	2. Family

Iruka is sitting with Naruto, eating ramen together, when Naruto suddenly tells him about his plans to start a family.

_Family_ , he thinks. Would he have been asked about his family a few years ago, before the war, before the village had been attacked, before _Naruto_ , Iruka would have probably answered, “I don’t have a family anymore.”

Or he didn’t have a family _yet_ , he thinks. Back then, he had been intend on building his own family one day, settling down, marrying and having kids. Now, he’s neither settled down nor married and he isn’t so sure about kids anymore.

Still, he’s somehow got a family now.

There are the children in his classes. They aren’t his own, but he tends to forget about that sometimes. Kakashi-san diligently loves to remind him about that during their weekly academy meeting, though. Iruka wonders, why he’s so intent on it; after all, their spat over the chuunin exams had been years ago and that had been special circumstances. He wonders if Kakashi-san’s worried he’d become too attached again. He wonders, too, if this is is really about the kids or if Kakashi-san’s just looking out for him in his somewhat quirky ways. Iruka is better at reading him now, after all those years. In a way, Kakashi-san has become part of his extended family as well, even if Iruka’s not sure yet in what capacity.

Everyone has become more closely knit in the aftermath of the war. After experiencing the world very nearly coming to an end, most previous conflicts feel kind of trivial. When even long-standing feuds between villages are abandoned, small feelings of resentment between Shinobi of the same village are easily forgotten. It’s a new beginning, but with a well of old memories that bind them together.

There are his comrades as well, too close now not to call them anything but brothers and sisters in his mind: Izumo, Kotetsu, Aoba, Kurenai-sensei, Suzume-sensei, Anko …

In his childhood, after his parents’ death, Mizuki had been his only friend. Iruka had thought that had been due to the circumstances, but later – after Mizuki’s betrayal – he had realized that it had been actually out of his own choice in a way. Maybe Mizuki had actively tried to distract his eyes from people approaching him with the intent of becoming his friends or maybe he had closed his eyes willingly, too fixated on Mizuki and his approval; but suddenly, people started to approach him again, inviting him for drinks after work and group outings. It was then that he had realized how many people actually wanted to be his friends.

And then there’s – of course – Naruto. His little _brother_ , he insists. He somehow can’t bear Naruto calling him _Dad_. There’s too much weight in that word, too large a shadow of Naruto’s real father looming over Iruka. He vaguely remembers Minato-san from his own childhood and he had been such a large and radiant presence in his child’s mind that Iruka could never imagine himself in Minato-san’s steps. He’s not that much of an adult yet. He might never be.

Especially, when Naruto is the suddenly the one taller than Iruka, marrying a girl and starting a family. Soon, there will be kids, Iruka knows, and he feels simultaneously far too old and far too much like a child, still. He fervently prays Naruto’s children will call him Uncle and not yet Grandpa.

But his family will grow and he’s happy for it. The small memories his parents left him, he will teach them to Naruto’s kids. The most important one – the Will of Fire – has already been lit in Naruto’s generation and beyond. The small spark that Iruka was gifted from his parents, nurtured and grown with Sandaime’s help, he can see it glowing brightly in the hearts of all he considers family, expanding in long lines before and behind him.


End file.
